Columbia Sportswear Company, a global leader in the active outdoor apparel and footwear industries, recently joined forces with southern Chinese authorities to raid a factory producing counterfeit Columbia Sportswear jackets.
The recent raid of Lianxing Garments Company located in Zhongshan City, China is part of an aggressive campaign to stamp out counterfeiters and protect Columbia's unique brands. The raid resulted in the seizure of more than 2,000 counterfeit pullovers and jackets.
''The increasing worldwide recognition of our brands requires us to be extremely aggressive toward the illegal activities of counterfeiters,'' said Tim Boyle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Sportswear. ''We are very pleased with continued efforts to dissuade counterfeiters from copying our products. We continue to successfully block the distribution and sale of counterfeits in key markets but it's critical that we also make efforts to stop these counterfeits at the source, such as the Lianxing factory.''
The factory will be fined, and the counterfeit product will be destroyed by Chinese governmental authorities.
Columbia employees, independent sales representatives and distributors around the world are trained to identify counterfeit products. Columbia coordinates an active global anti-counterfeiting program from its headquarters in Portland, Ore., and initiates numerous operations each year.
